Recently, a system utilizing a multichannel sound field recording and reproduction system has come under the spotlight. The system provides a vivid presence sound field. A variety of systems such as: a 2ch stereo-sound system; a binaural system; a 5.1ch surround-sound system, each of which uses relatively few channels, and; a 22.2 multichannel sound system; and a 121ch microphone array/157ch loudspeaker array system using advanced technology developed from the principle of Ambisonics, each of which uses relatively many channels, has already been proposed.
When recording a sound field with the system mentioned above, one has to check an arrangement of tens of microphones and cable-connections between the microphones and a sound recording device at the site of recording. By the same token, when reproducing a sound field with the system mentioned above, one also has to check the arrangement of tens of loudspeakers and cable-connections between the loudspeakers and a sound reproduction device at the site of reproduction.
Accordingly, an apparatus with which one can easily check the arrangement of a number of microphones (or a number of loudspeakers) and cable-connections is anticipated.
Patent Literature 1 (US2010/0195444A Specification) discloses a method for estimating positions of a plurality of loudspeakers. In the method of Patent Literature 1, with respect to the plurality of loudspeakers regarded as position estimation objects, distances of every pair among the loudspeakers are measured. Based on the measurement result, a distance matrix of which each element shows a distance of a loudspeaker pair in real space is derived. In the method of Patent Literature 1, then, the Multidimensional Scaling is applied to the distance matrix derived as mentioned above to obtain the positions in the real space of the plurality of the loud speakers.